This morning I ate a perfect peach, soft-skinned rose and gold, juicy, fragrant. In the delight of the moment, I found myself giving thanks for the grower, picker, shipper, and purveyor of the peach and praying: may they be well, may they have plenty, may they feel satisfaction in their work, may they know peace.
The prayer’s Buddhist phrases rose in my heart unplanned, a sign I devoutly hope shows I’m growing in my understanding of Spirit. In the past I might only have thought, “Thank you, God, for this beautiful fruit.” And such daily miracles do come from the All-Good, the All-Loving God. But seldom directly.
My spiritual search has shown that the Holy Mystery often blesses me through other people—those who produced the peach, who grew the tea I drank from a pottery mug made, shipped and sold by others. We are connected in facile sound bites by Smart Phones, Twitter and Facebook. But we are more deeply linked in a holy, mysterious, far-reaching web of interactions extending from the small place where we stand to the ever-expanding space beyond the stars.
“Indra’s Net” from the Rig Veda as described by Anne Adams says:
There is an endless net of threads throughout the universe…
At every crossing of the threads there is an individual.
And every individual is a crystal bead.
And every crystal bead reflects
not only the light from every
other crystal in the net
but also every other reflection
throughout the universe.*
May each and all be well.
May each and all have plenty.
May each and all find meaning in work.
May each and all know peace.
* Quoted in Turning to One Another by Margaret J. Wheatley, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2002
Submitted by B. Griffin
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